Fat Cell Killer: How to Remove Fat Cells From Your Stubborn Body Areas
Recently I published my brand-new, unique program called “Fat Cell Killer“. In it, I studied the ways of permanent fat cells removal without dieting. In fact, this process is slow, but the research is impressive. And on this page I want to share with you some discoveries and findings within this book.
Contents:
Why Killing Fat Cells is Important for Long-Term Weight Loss
Exercise – A Slow But Effective Fat Cell Killer
A New Reason to Train Your Core
Why Killing Fat Cells is Important for Long-Term Weight Loss
Your fat cells shrink and they grow… that’s just what they do.
When you diet they shrink, and you guessed it… When you eat they grow again.
This all has to do with your fat cells changing in SIZE; as they gain fatty acids, they swell, and as they release fatty acids they shrink.
However, when we STUDY fat loss we don’t really measure the SIZE of your fat cells…
Instead we measure the amount of fatty acids in your blood.
If something causes an increase in fatty acids then we know that fat is being released from your fat stores and therefore you are “losing fat”.
Conversely, if something doesn’t cause you to release more fat then we say it does not help with losing fat.
And while this is really useful… it’s also incomplete.
When we measure markers of cell DEATH a whole different story emerges – one where even though we don’t see fat cells shrinking, or fat being released into our blood we see something just as interesting… fat cells beginning to disintegrate.
If anyone tells you that fat cells never die, they are completely wrong – just like every cell in your body, they eventually die.
This is the focus of the science behind the Fat Cell Killer program…
What if you could make 11% of your fat cells die, but only replace 9%?
We’re not talking about rapid weight loss (shrinking your fat cells is still your best option when it comes to lowering the amount of fat on your body), but what we are talking about is the slow removal of actual fat cells, making weight regain more difficult, and possibly solving some “stubborn fat” issues.
So think of shrinking your fat cells as the quick goal, and possibly killing fat cells as the more long term goal.
The Fat Cell Killer #1 – Cold
I understand if the previous paragraph seemed a bit far fetched. After all, we’ve all heard the tall tale that fat cells never die. Fortunately for us, this is a complete myth.
However, sometimes we do need proof to really accept an idea… so I’m going to take you all the way back to the late 1960s when Drs Epstein and Oren were asked to examine a 6 month old child who had a strange reaction to a Popsicle.
This particular 6 month old child presented with panniculitis of the cheek after letting the popsicle rest on the inside of his mouth.
[[ Panniculits – An inflammation of the subcutaneous adipose tissue (the fatty layer under the skin – panniculus adiposus). ]]
This discovery led to the realization that lipid-rich cells in your body fat are more susceptible to cold injury than the surrounding water-rich tissue in your skin and muscle.
And this lead to the idea that you can actually KILL your body fat. This lead to a United States Patent granted in 2008, that discusses the use of cryolipolysis – freezing your fat cells to death.
In the following years, multiple clinical studies have found that 45 minutes of exposure to cold temperatures was shown to reduce subcutaneous fat at the treatment site by up to 25% after one treatment. Improvements were seen in 86% of treated subjects.
One study published in 2009 involving ten subjects reported a 20.4% and 25.5% reduction in the fat layer 2 months and 6 months after treatment, respectively.
Not only was fat loss shown through skin fold and callipers as well as diagnostic imaging, but one study found that blinded investigators were able to correctly differentiate between pretreatment and post treatment images in 89 percent of cases!
The down side of apoptosis is that it is a slow process. The good news is that it seems to have lasting effects.
So, we have solid evidence that we can alter the number of fat cells we have in specific areas of our body through apoptosis. Next, we look at other techniques shown to induce apoptosis in fat cells that don’t involve the freezing cold.
Foods that Kill Fat Cells
It’s probably no surprise that the study of fruit and berry polyphenols has uncovered a link between these amazing chemicals and fat cell apoptosis.
I’ve spent a large amount of time studying their ability to protect us against endotoxins and their inhibit the enzyme fatty acid synthase – the very enzyme responsible for making new fat in your body, and now we’re learning that they also have the ability to initiate fat cell death.
Curcumin from turmeric, xanthohumol from beer, polymethoxyflavones from citrus fruits, EGCG from green tea, alpha-mangostin from mangosteen, and blueberry polyphenols have all been studied for their ability to initiate apoptosis in human fat cells.
Not only that, but the very act of blocking fatty acid synthase (something many fruit polyphenols do very well) also has the ability to imitate fat cell apoptosis (cell death).
Interestingly when we look at the plants and their polyphenols that initiate apoptosis we see a laundry list of plants and spices that have traditional been thought to prevent weight gain, such as green tea, turmeric, and berries.
I find this curious because when we MEASURE fat loss in clinical research we only really ever measure fat cells SHRINKING in a 6 to 12 week period. Rarely do we measure in 5 to 6 month month range, and very rarely do we measure any longer than 6 months.
Since I see no downside to an increased intake of fruits and berries, or spices and teas, I think it’s reasonable to suggest this approach as part of our overall fat loss approach.
In fact, I think an ideal fat loss diet would centre around an adequate protein intake of around 100 grams of protein per day combined with a high intake of berries and other polyphenol foods – which is exactly the diet I recommend in Good Belly, Bad Belly.
Pineapples for Fat Loss?
The metabolic enzyme fatty acid synthase (FASN) is responsible for the synthesis of new fat in your body. In fact, it’s the ONLY enzyme capable of creating new fat.
Blocking the activity of Fatty Acid Synthase not only prevents the creation of new fat in your body, but also intiatates Fat Cell Apoptosis.
There are many potent pharmaceuticals that can block FAS – most of them are used in cancer treatment.
However, you don’t need pharmaceutical drugs to block FAS, you can do it with the polyphenols found in your food.
Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, teas, and herbs all contain a vast array of thousands of different types of polyphenols.
In fact, Stem Bromelein is an enzyme capable of inducing apoptosis in fat cells, and pineapple (specifically the stem) is one of the richest sources in the world of bromelain (the fruit and core also contain bromeliad).
The bottom line in that a diet that contains fruit also contains ingredients that helps control that amount of fat cells you have… or another way to look at it is – a diet high in fruits helps maintain a normal fat cell metabolism.
Next we’ll discuss what can create an ABNORMAL fat cell metabolism that leads to an accumulation of excess fat cells in your body.
Dysfunctional Fat
Under normal metabolic conditions, your fat cells (technically called adipocytes) have a mean lifespan of 10 years.
Only 10% of all fat cells undergo a yearly renewal process, which is tightly balanced between the creation of new fat cells and the apoptosis of older mature adipocytes.
However, recent studies suggest that a prolonged period of obesity may cause the body to create more new fat cells without increasing fat cell apoptosis.
This creates an abundance of fat cels, and as their number increases, the continuous deposit of fat INTO your fat cells causes your fat cells to further grow in size.
You end up with more and bigger fat cells.
The overexpansion of adipose tissue yields to severely dysfunctional adipocytes that secrete adipokines and cytokines, such as leptin and adiponectin, and cause alterations to their normal metabolism.
However, we’re still not sure why all of this happens.
It’s been suggested that it’s inflammation, or a response to lipopolysaccharide like we discuss in Good Belly, Bad Belly.
[[ It is interesting that the body treats excess fat gain like an infection completely with a low-grade inflammation response. ]]
We don’t know exactly why your fat cells become dysfunctional, or why they start to accumulate in some cases of obesity (and sometimes only in some areas of the body).
What we do know is that most weight loss treatments are able to change the size of fat cells, which result in noticeable weight loss, but the total number of adipocytes remains the same.
Once the treatment stops, the contracted adipocytes expand to regain their original size.
This is why we are going to focus on finding new ways to regulate fat cell number, specifically by trying to find natural ways to remove excess fat cells (you still want to have some fat cells).
Exercise – A Slow But Effective Fat Cell Killer
Apoptosis isn’t just for fat cells.
In fact, it’s the focus of an area of research that is extremely important —> Fighting Cancer.
Apoptosis is how we can get rid of tumors.
It is exciting research, and research we can borrow from…
In a recent study, breast cancer cells were put in blood that was taken immediately after an exercise bout, and it was found that the exercise-conditioned serum could reduce cancer cell viability and induce apoptosis through caspase activation.
And conditioning fat cells with exercised blood has the same affect – a large increase in apoptosis.
Myokines are inflammatory molecules released by your muscles when you exercise.
( They are basically how your muscles talk to the rest of your body.)
Research of the last decade revealed that several myokines are regulated by contraction.
Specifically the muscle contractions that occur during moderate and intense resistance training.
And research is now suggesting the Myokines are involved in the apoptosis process.
The right exercise, at the right intensity, done regularly can help kill excess fat cells.
A New Reason to Train Your Core
Exercise causes a release of Myokines, and myokines can affect fat cell apoptosis.
So why don’t we see startling fat loss with exercise?
While it is true that exercise training has significant effects on adipose tissue genes involved in apoptosis, it’s really important to know that apoptosis is a SLOOOOWW process.
In fact, it’s so slow that you wouldn’t really ‘see’ it in a 8 week study, probably not even in a 12 week study.
But we do see it in real life.
We see active people typically being leaner than inactive people.
We assume it’s their metabolism, but could it be something else? Like their fat cell number?
Exercise increases blood flow to the exercising muscle. And it can increase blood flow to the area AROUND the exercising muscle… ie the fat near the muscle.
Researchers in 2007 suggested that this may be how spot-reduction may work… by allowing an increased blood flow, we allowed more fat OUT of the fat cells.
But there is an alternative hypothesis…
Increased blood flow allowed more Myokines to be delivered IN to the fat cells.
Which, not immediately, but slowly and chronically allowed for a reduce fat cell number via apoptosis.
There may be a reason to exercise your abs…the results will not be immediate, but they could be long lasting.
Whole Body Cold Exposure
We’ve talked about using cold as a TARGETED method to try and induce apoptosis, however what we have NOT talked about is using cold as a way to try and create more systemic (whole body) apoptosis.
Whole body Cryotherapy is a a brief full body exposure to dry air at cryogenic temperatures
lower than −110◦C.
While Cryotherapy has been shown to have a whole host of benefits including reduced inflammation, increasing apoptosis is not one of them.
This is because while using very cold dry air does, ‘feel’ cold, the temperature TRANSFER is lower than that which occurs when you apply Ice directly to you skin, and much lower than found in Cryolipolysis treatments.
However, there is still an increase in myokine release, and since we know Apoptosis is a SLOW process, there may still be some use.
Importantly, just like most Apoptosis treatments, it seems the leaner you already are, the better it works (The exceptions to this rule are of course diet and exercise)
I’ll keep an eye out for direct Apoptosis research, but until then cryotherapy is still worth considering for its anti-inflammatory effects.
Reference
– Total control of fat cells from adipogenesis to apoptosis using a xanthene analog. 2017 Jun 5. doi: Link
– Adipose Tissue and Atherosclerosis. 2015 Jul 31 Physiol. Res. 64 (Suppl. 3): S395-S402: Link
-“Sick Fat,” Metabolic Disease, and Atherosclerosis. 2009 Feb. DOI: Link